Corbyn in decisive pledge on blocking no-deal
EU leaders issue warning to Prime Minister after talks at Sharm El-Sheikh
THE LABOUR Party is prepared to back a second referendum to prevent a “damaging Tory Brexit” if its withdrawal plan is rejected by MPs this week.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn told a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party he will do “everything” in his power to stop Britain crashing out of the European Union without a deal, and will put forward or support an amendment in favour of a public vote to stop the Prime Minister’s deal being “forced on the country” if his Brexit demands are not met.
Labour will seek to enshrine five Brexit demands in law by tabling an amendment to the Government’s Brexit motion, which is set to be debated tomorrow.
The demands include a permanent, comprehensive customs union with the EU and close alignment with the Single Market, plus a dynamic alignment on rights and protections, and commitments on participation in EU agencies and funding programmes.
If the plan is rejected, Labour will then support a second referendum.
Mr Corbyn accused Theresa May of “recklessly running down the clock” so as to force MPs to choose between her “botched” deal and no-deal.
Earlier in the day, Labour backbencher Rachel Reeves warned that the party must take a decisive position or risk “being the handmaiden of a hard Tory Brexit”.The Leeds MP said the party leadership needed to drop its policy of constructive ambiguity and do everything possible to block Theresa May’s deal or a no-deal Brexit.
EUROPEAN UNION leaders have warned Theresa May she is “sleepwalking into a no-deal scenario” as the Prime Minister insisted Britain would leave the bloc by next month’s deadline as planned.
Mrs May told reporters it is “within our grasp” for Britain to leave the EU with a deal on March 29 as she held another round of urgent Brexit talks.
She has come under increasing pressure to delay Brexit by extending Article 50, having failed to secure new concessions from the EU on the Withdrawal Agreement and with just 31 days left until the UK’s planned departure date. Speaking after talks with senior European figures, Mrs May also suggested she could try to take her deal through Parliament before it has been formally approved by the other 27 member states.
But Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had talks with Mrs May in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, issued a stark warning to the Prime Minister, saying the UK needed to “wake up”.
Mr Rutte told the BBC: “The Netherlands is one of your best friends. What you guys are doing – leaving EU in this time of insecurity in the world, instability in the EU – is the wrong decision.
“It’s four weeks until the end date and still the UK has not agreed a position.
“So, now we are sleepwalking into a no-deal scenario. It’s unacceptable and your best friends have to warn you.
“Wake up. This is real. Come to a conclusion and close the deal.”
Following a meeting with Mrs May over the weekend, European Council President Donald Tusk revealed that the pair had discussed the legal and procedural process for extending the twoyear Article 50 withdrawal negotiations.
Mr Tusk said delaying Brexit was now the “rational solution”, warning that the only alternative, if MPs cannot agree a deal, is “a chaotic Brexit”.
Despite also facing pressure from pro-EU Tories for a delay, the Prime Minister insisted in a Press conference at the end of a summit of EU and Arab nations yesterday that she was sticking to her timetable.
“It’s within our grasp to leave with a deal on March 29 and that’s where all of my energies are going to be focused,” she said.
Challenged over whether MPs would be able to vote on any additional assurances she secures from Brussels before they have been formally signed off by the EU 27, Mrs May told reporters: “It is possible to do it either way.”
Mrs May had meetings in Egypt with EU leaders Mr Tusk, Mr Rutte, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Italy’s Giuseppe Conte.
“What I sense in all my conversations with my fellow leaders, both here in Sharm El-Sheikh and in recent days, is a real determination to find a way through which allows the UK to leave the EU in a smooth and orderly way with a deal,” she said.
The talks came after she admitted that a “meaningful vote” on her Brexit deal would now be held on March 12 at the latest – just 17 days before Britain is due to leave the EU.
Mrs May now faces the prospect of another potentially damaging
Commons revolt tomorrow when MPs are expected to mount a fresh attempt to block a nodeal break and extend Article 50 through an amendment to a Government motion.
Three pro-EU Cabinet Ministers – Amber Rudd, David Gauke and Greg Clark – signalled they could be prepared to back the plan if there is no breakthrough in the negotiations.
Labour MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford Yvette Cooper, who drew up the plan with Tory Sir Oliver Letwin, said it would now become the “real meaningful vote”.